Wednesday, Jan 16 - It's been a few days since last reporting, but not a lot to tell. We've been laboring about where to go from here over the past few days, and finally decided this morning to go south for a week. So we're going to Central Florida, to a place called Arcadia, which is not far from Sebring. Why there? It's going to be warmer, and it's a place we know little about. This morning the temp here was plus 3C, so pretty chilly. Going to 13 C. And looking north and west, the weather is not encouraging, unless you go all the way to Arizona. So we'll hunker down for another week in Florida and see what develops.

The past week has been spent cycling, walking, reading, playing a few games, making the best of coolish weather. We went to the Shed two or three times, had shrimp and chowder at the Freezer, which we'll do again before we go. We spent yesterday over at Crystal River, doing an Ecowalk, and visiting a very old archaeological site, consisting of several large burial mounds that go back from 500 BC to 600 AD. The peoples that lived in that area had a large community for hundreds of years, prior to the arrival of Europeans, but little is known of their affiliation with later tribes.

A few pictures are in order.

 We've done a lot of biking...Lar is now over 600kms since hitting Florida, and Gail close to 500.

 Our favorite perch is at the bar overlooking the river at the Shed, which has music on the week-ends, and lots of interesting characters drinkin' and dancing. Lots of bikers...mostly oldsters, many veterans.

 The main seating area of the Shed, open under a roof, with cheap beer and great French Fries.

 My favorite local bird is the brown pelican...great flyers, scrappy, fun to watch as they sweep along the river looking for hand-outs or fish. The Shed has two areas for local fishermen to clean their catch, and when they do so, about 30 to 50 pelicans gather below them or on the dock to get scraps. Quite a site, as they scrap over the scraps.

Lots of bikers come to Homosassa, especially on the week-end. Note our bikes parked in their midst.

The big issue here in the U.S. is the government shut-down. Yesterday we met a retired Parks employee, who was very angry and upset with you-know-who for forcig this shut-down. He told us that people are invading Joshua National Park in California, cutting down trees and roaring all over areas forbidden to vehicles. No-one is on duty to prevent such behavior. He is not happy with his President. Lots of reports about federal employees not getting paid, and having to go to Food Banks, borrow money from relatives, to survive. Quite an impasse!

We leave Homosassa on Friday. On to another less-known place...Arcadia. It's cowboy country, the land of the Crackers. Who knows what that'll be like. So stay tuned. More later.